My Heart Was Home Again
by MyraValhallah
Summary: <html><head></head>Season One AU. Zelena cast the curse using Rumpelstiltskin to do so but True Love is the most powerful magic and can inevitably transcend anything. Meanwhile in the fairytale land the King and Queen of Arendelle make a different choice regarding Elsa's powers and everything changes. Ensemble fic.</html>
1. Preface

_**I am not a Frozen fan- only three things I like about the movie's content; the message, Let It Go and Olaf (he's cute). This story is what I think would have happened if Elsa and Anna's parents had made a better choice regarding Elsa's powers at the beginning of the movie. Also please note that this story includes Arendelle as part of the Enchanted Forest.**_

_**Very AU, ignores Season 4.**_

_**I'd like to thank everyone who read and reviewed, followed, favourited **__**A Tale of Once Upon A Time**_ _**and **__**The Millers' Daughter**_ _**and I hope you'll enjoy this story.**_

_**Rumbelle. Jefferson/OC. OutlawQueen. Snowing. et cetera. Will include some crossover.**_

_**Preface.**_

_Dear Reader,_

_There is no such thing as a land without magic. There are merely worlds where such things are kept secret by those in the know- this is one such world. Once upon a time all of our favourite storybook characters were brought to our world by a powerful curse- you all know that story… or do you?_

_Once upon a time, dear readers in this very world, I was hailed as the brightest witch of my age. My name _was _Hermione Granger; until I was hit by what was supposed to be the killing curse in the direct aftermath of the final battle of the second wizarding war of Great Britain. What I was actually hit by was (as I later discovered) a past life spell and _I, _Annabelle of Arendelle, (later Gold), returned from the grave in poor dear Hermione's place._

_Hermione lives on in me; rather like the side effect of the Dark Curse of having two sets of memories, or so my husband, daughter and most of my friends tell me. I must admit that this fact is largely irrelevant to the story I am about to tell has little to do with my old life in this land though I shall refer to it on occasion._

_This, readers is my first foray into the world of writing; I find myself allowed to do little else as of late, darling Rumple gets too damn protective of me when I'm expecting- but that is beside the point. This tale will be written in the third person, as so many wonderful stories are, and it begins a long time ago, before I met my darling husband._

_I hope you enjoy it dear readers, certainly more than I enjoyed living _some _of it._

_Your friend and fellow story lover,_

_Belle._

~V~

_**Do please let me know what you think, any constructive criticism you may have will be very helpful.**_


	2. Prologue

_**This story is rated for language content!**_

_**Prologue**_

_Smash! Crash! Crunch!_

Rumpelstiltskin _loved_ the breaking noises; the breaking noises helped to sate the darkness that raged within him. Though it didn't help much. This time the Dark One was _so_ enraged. How dare the power hungry little whore betray him like that? He opened up to her, offered her his very heart and believed she'd felt the same way and how had the, now quite literally, heartless shrew repaid him? There'd been so much darkness in her, so much _anger_; almost equal to his own, that was the only reason he'd given the ungrateful little cunt the time of day in the first fucking place.

_Crunch! Crash! Thud!_

Gods' bollocks he should have kept that sodding oath he'd sworn in his anger in the fallout of losing Bae that he would love nothing else until he had his boy back. Well, he wouldn't be making _that_ mistake again. No woman would worm her way into his heart, no matter what. No matter who she was and how dark her fucking soul.

~V~

_**Next time:**__** No More Happy Endings. In which the curse is cast and a young woman finds where she belongs.**_


	3. I: No More Happy Endings

_**Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, followed and favourited this story so far. I hope y'all enjoy this chapter.**_

_**Belle (guest): Thank you for your review and I hope this is a fast enough update for you :)**_

* * *

><p><span><em><strong>Chapter One: No More Happy Endings.<strong>_

(_Hogwarts Castle, Scotland, 1998._)

Hermione Granger ran through the corridors of Hogwarts, ducking and dodging the spells from both sides of the battle as well as firing off her own defensive and offensive spells. She had to find Harry and Ron, they'd got separated in the fighting. Hermione threw herself forward to avoid the large chunk of stone banister falling towards her; throwing up a shield charm for extra protection. Landing painfully on her coxycs, Hermione sat, winded, for as long as she dared (scant few seconds) until she was forced to move to avoid a Death Eater heading her way.

"Come out come out wherever you are, Mudblood." Goyle, the Death Eater in question, called out.

Hermione couldn't help thinking that Goyle's only experience with people her age was his own idiot son Gregory. Hermione wasn't called the brightest witch of her age for nothing. She darted down the passage she had ducked into and…

"Well, well, Harry Potter's pretty little Mud Blood."

_Damn! _Hermione had run right into Fenrir Greyback. She stumbled away before the huge werewolf could get to her. Greyback raised the wand in his hairy hand.

"_Avarda Kadabra."_

Hermione Granger's final moments were spent in the knowledge that knowledge that Greyback had made some colossal blunder. The light that shot from the end of his wand was not the signature blinding green flash; it was curiously enough the dark orange of a red brick house.

* * *

><p><span><em>(<em>_Enchanted Forest 6 months pre-curse__)_

_Belle could tell the second the smoke cleared that something was amiss in their home. They had had a lovely day too, at Snow White and Prince James' wedding, and this had proven enough to ruin Belle's formerly jubilant mood. The boys had stiffened, but their father had gone horribly still. He flinched when she squeezed his hand in an attempt to offer some comfort._

"_It's just me my darling." she assured him. "What's wrong with the Castle?"_

_She could only sense the trouble because of the bond forged between them on their wedding day, but could not tell, as he and the boys could, what the trouble was._

"_Someone tripped the wards sweetheart," he informed her, darkly. "But whomever it was is long gone."_

"_Can you tell who it was Papa?" Baelfire asked, since his return a year earlier he had come to accept what his father was now, especially as he now had Belle to anchor him to his humanity._

"_No son," was the answer he received and the one he'd least wanted to hear. "The trace has faded away to practically nothing."_

"_Bae, stay with your brother," Belle instructed her stepson moving forward in step with Rumpelstiltskin._

"_Belle... "_

"_Rumpel." she parroted, with a quelling look. "I'm coming with you, and no buts," she continued as her spouse opened his mouth to protest. "You said that our visitor has gone, so what's the harm?"_

_They'd stared at one another for a few moments, until Rumpel's shoulders slumped. "Very well."_

_Belle smiled and linked her arm through Rumpelstiltskin's; her smile twisted into a smirk as she heard Baelfire make a the sound of a whip crack from behind them._

_As it turned out, only one thing had been taken- but it was hardly a trifling something. One of the chests which curse to end all curses which Rumpel had yet to destroy for reasons he had yet to divulge._

"_Whomever it was knows what they have." Rumpel told her, gravely once they were cloistered in their bedchamber that night. "And those who know about the... project I spent those years on are few and far between."_

"_Will they be able to open the box?" Belle asked, snuggling into his side. "Even with all the magic you pumped into keeping the thing locked?"_

_Rumpel didn't answer and Belle felt her blood run cold. Rumpel never lied to her, but he simply refused to answer when he felt that she would not like the answer._

"_We have to warn everyone," she declared, every inch the brave princess she had been when they'd met._

_Despite himself Rumpel chuckled, pressing a kiss to his wife's hair. "We can do nothing tonight sweetheart- warn as many people as you wish, but start tomorrow. The rest of the realm is asleep and we should join them."_

_Belle hummed and extinguished the lights in the room with a wave of her hand. "I love you Rumpelstiltskin."_

"_As I love you," he purred and drew her close, allowing her scent and proximity to relax him and lull him to sleep._

* * *

><p><span>(<em>Somewhere, some<em>when)

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum. Ba-bum…

Ba-bum, breath in. Ba-bum, breath out…

Forever went by, or was it merely a matter of moments? Eventually numbness faded into pain; pain lessened into sensation; and then...

A pair of vivid blue eyes snapped open and stared up at the night sky above her.

'_It's not really the sky,' _she told… _reminded_ herself. '_it's just enchanted to look like the sky outside.'_

She wasn't sure how she knew that; or how she knew on some instinctive level, that she shouldn't stay on where she was- she had to leave, and quickly, before someone saw the supposedly dead woman who had just wakened surrounded by fallen friends and fellow warriors. She had no clue as to how she had come to be in this place- this school for witches and wizards- but she suspected that her darling Rumple would get a kick out of knowing that this land was _not _without magic.

_Hang on, who the hell is this Rumple?_

Oh gods she was confused. She needed to leave this place, needed to find somewhere to lay low- to collect herself… to rediscover who in the name of Merlin's saggy left testical she was. That was, assuming she had ever really been anyone in the first place; because in that instant she wasn't convinced.

She pushed herself into a sitting position, fingers... (_her fingers?) _closed automatically around the stick- the _wand_ which lay beside her. Getting to her feet was more of a struggle than she'd thought it would be- her head swam as she took a single lumbering step, then a second but as she was about to take a third she stumbled and landed hard on her belly on the stone floor and the world was snatched away as the blackness claimed her again.

* * *

><p><span><em>(<em>_Enchanted Forest, 6 months pre-curse__)_

_Belle pulled her cloak tighter around herself to shut out the chill, wishing that she had her sister's talents. It was a very cold night, and while Belle's magic was more generalized than Elsa's she was no less immune to the cold's effects than anyone who was not the Snow Queen of Arendelle, despite the blood they shared. She knocked on the door and waited for the door to open._

"_Belle," she was greeted with a warm smile. "What brings you here on such a horrid night as this?"_

"_May I come in Alice?" Belle asked, teeth chattering. "It's freezing out here."_

_Alice Hatter nodded and let her into the house. "I'm sorry."_

"_No matter." Belle assured, making a beeline for the fireplace. "I'm sorry to drop in on you at such a time Alice but I need to speak you you and Jefferson. It's important."_

"_It must be important if it pulls you away from the Dark Castle at such a time on a night like this, Beauty."_

"_Jefferson." Belle greeted the handsome hatted Portal jumper fondly. "I'm sorry to drop in on you so late, but it just couldn't wait…"_

"_What couldn't?" Jefferson asked, the smile he'd worn to greet her fading fast. "Is everything alright?"_

"_Someone broke into the Castle," Belle replied gravely. "They took _it."

_Anyone else in the Enchanted Forest would have thought this answer cryptic, but not Jefferson and Alice Hatter- they'd been crucial in the creation of the curse, so Belle had insisted that they know what their true love was to be used for. Alice cried out in horror and clutched at her husband for support._

"_How long do we have to prepare?" Jefferson demanded, fear for his family's safety at the forefront of his mind._

"_Rumpel says that it would take a powerful sorcerer six months to break through the locks he put on the box," Belle returned. "Jeff, Alice, we are so sorry."_

"_Just… just go Belle."_

_Belle nodded sadly and vanished in a cloud of blue smoke._

* * *

><p><em>(<em>_Six months later.__)_

_Rumpelstiltskin was dragged into wakefulness, he knew exactly what had pulled him from his sleep. There was no mistaking the shivers now running down his spine, even if his experience of such a sensation was solely second hand. Someone had his dagger._

_Dread and rage warred within the Dark One. Not once in his centuries of being the Dark One had the dagger left his tight control, he had always loathed uncertainty, especially having Belle and the boys to think of. He dreaded what might become of his family should his new master have malicious intent towards them._

"_Rumpel?" Gods bollocks, now it had wakened Belle. There were times that he loathed the bond between them. "What's wrong? Another nightmare?"_

_Rumpel pulled away from her embrace. "It's nothing dearie."_

_He knew she was trying not to glower at him. "Don't call me that, you know I hate it."_

"_Forgive me sweetheart," his monstrous fingers carded through his stringy curls. "Someone has it."_

_Anyone else would ask what, but not his Belle, his perceptive princess gasped, horrified. "Can you tell who?"_

_He shook his head. "Only where."_

"_Where?"_

"_The vault."_

"_But only those of your blood can..."_

"_Not my vault, Belle," he stiffened as his master called out to him. "The vault of the Dark One, where the souls of my predecessors went after the curse left them."_

_Belle shivered, he could feel her disgust and longed to offer comfort, and he may have done so had his master not chosen that moment to call him to them._

"_Belle I..." was all he had time to say before he was carried away to meet his new master._

"_Hello Darling," his master's voice sent a shiver through the Dark One, a heady mixture of fear and revulsion._

"_Zelena," he managed, refusing to call the green tinted shrew 'Mistress'._

"_Now, now Rumpel," Zelena purred. "We must abide by the formalities, dear."_

_Rumpel bit back a groan, as he was pushed down on one knee and hissing. "_Mistress."

* * *

><p><span>(<em>Storybrooke Maine 2011<em>)

It had taken Belle years to track down her kinsmen. Why the magic had transported the denizens of the magical realms to small town coastal Maine, she had no idea, but she was glad it had- at least everyone was together, out of harm's way, in relatively small space. She couldn't help thinking that if it wasn't for her magic she wouldn't have been able to find the place at all.

She'd been in town for just over a year and it had given her ample opportunity to get the measure of the place. Dislusionment charms were incredibly useful things, she'd been using them almost constantly since arriving in town- not wanting the formerly green homewrecker to know she was in the area, not until she'd found the saviour. And for that she was extremely grateful for the abandoned library's internet connection- conveniently kept up to date by the curse- because the muggles were better at keeping tabs on things than the witches and wizards of this world.

* * *

><p><em>Belle staggered as the magic released her. She'd been tucking Kaidan in, and trying to explain to their four year old why Papa hadn't come home yet, when her husband's magic had plucked her from her son's bedroom and deposited her… in a clearing.<em>

"_Rumpel?" she called, trying to quell the fear rising up in her. "Rumpel, where are we?_

"_I'm so sorry Belle," She turned to find her husband standing beside a large cauldron, absolute defeat in every line of his body. "She has my dagger. I have no choice."_

"_Indeed I do," that slightly accented drawling voice was unmistakable. "Now darling, tear her heart out and crush it into the cauldron."_

_Rumpel began towards her, the halting movements so far removed from his typical catlike gait was the only indication that her husband was fighting tooth and nail against the compulsion on him._

"_I'm _so _sorry," he grunted as he reached her, his arm rising mechanically and plunging into her chest. "I'm so sorry Belle."_

_Belle cried out as her husband tore her heart from her body and moved stiffly over to Zelena who had remained by the cauldron._

"_Crush it." The witch ordered._

"_Forgive me Belle." He didn't look at her as he said it- Belle doubted he could bring himself to do so. He was so torn up over what he had to do to her._

"_I love you," she told him, steeling herself for what was about to happen to her._

"_Now Rumpelstiltskin!"_

_There was a moment of intense, burning pain and then…_

_Rumpelstiltskin howled as his true love's body crumpled. The instant he was free of the Dagger's compulsion, he was beside Belle's body. Hugging her limp form close and weeping into her thick brown curls._

"_Oh don't worry darling," Zelena cooed as violet smoke began to bubble up over the top of the cauldron. "In a moment you won't remember that you ever knew her, or _loved _her."_

_And then the world was snuffed out by the acrid violet blanket of the curse's dark magic._

_~V~_

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><p><em><strong>That's chapter one. In my plan for this chapter there was a section where Hermione faded into the background while Belle became the more dominant personality, but I couldn't get it to flow properly so it will be included, just in a later chapter.<strong>_

_**Next time:**** Once Upon A December. In which we meet our saviour and discover more of this version of Storybrooke.**_


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